otter

February 21, 2010

The title of today's entry is good, just shows that Exeter is a great city to live in. I was up very early this morning and by 6.30, sat in a bag hide, hoping to see the otters responsible for all the tracks I have been finding these last few days. I drew a blank and after the day had dawned and we had some light I went back to sit in my Kingfisher hide. The Kingfisher is like a drug and I just can't get enough of him. I am beginning to learn more and more about this individual. One of the things I am rapidly discovering is not to assume that you can predict with certainty when he will put in an appearance. This morning for example, it was well after 8 before I saw him. He was around the hide area and fishing and he flew past me in both directions a few times. The light was so perfect and I was really hoping that he would bring his catch to one of the hide perches. I can only assume that he wasn't successful near to the hide because the nearest I got to him was this picture which shows how good the light was and also how frustrating it can be when he is just that tiny bit too far away, about 20 mtrs in this shot.

Eventually he left and at around that time I became aware of a lady, her husband and a small child looking intently at the ground. I guessed they were looking for Otter signs so I emerged from the hide and went to chat to them. It turned out that they were doing some kind of otter survey which is really odd as it is in competition with the survey I am taking part in and yet both surveys seemed to have some Devon Wildlife Trust involvement. This is really odd and I will get to the bottom of it tomorrow. I pointed them in the right direction, showed them tracks and how to identify them and also showed them some spraint.

Here is one of the sites that I found this morning at around 8.30.

My lovely wife and I took a walk around Exeter Quay and Trews Weir on the River Exe this afternoon, apparently that's what normal people do! I took my camera of course and I was interested to see that the Black Headed Gulls are really coming in to breeding condition and are starting to look quite attractive. In a week or so they will look even better as the head becomes more chocolate and the eyes becomes even redder.

Incidentally, the garden is very, very quiet today with no Goldfinch flocks. The Sparrowhawk certainly spooked all the birds on Friday. I did see a pair of Collared Doves in the tree so perhaps the breeding male wasn't the predated bird on Friday and things will carry on as normal. If not, then the female has wasted no time in replacing him! A Blackcap was in the Torbay Palm and we have had a few Sparrows keeping a low profile. The Blackbird pair continue to carry nesting material around, particularly the female.

Incidentally, I have no control over the adverts on my blog and I see that we have an advert for a dating site this evening......... not my choice! Also, welcome to the visitor from Qatar I hope you found something to look at that you found interesting. You are the 113th different country to visit the blog!